Aerial Radiation Survey at a Military Range

Abstract

Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) is currently listed on the Superfund National Priorities List because of past waste handling practices at 13 “study areas.” Concern has been expressed that anthropogenic radioisotopes may have been released at some of the study areas, with the potential of posing health risks to human or ecological receptors. This concern was addressed by thoroughly searching archival records, sampling and analyzing environmental media, and performing an aerial radiation survey. The aerial radiation survey techniques employed have been used over all U.S. Department of Energy and commercial reactor sites. Use of the Aerial Measurement System (AMS) allowed investigators to safely survey areas where surveys using hand-held instruments would be difficult to perform. In addition, the AMS delivered a full spectrum of the measured gamma radiation, thereby providing a means of determining which radioisotopes were present at the surface. As a quality check on the aerial measurements, four ground truth measurements were made at selected locations and compared with the aerial data for the same locations. The results of the survey revealed no evidence of surface radioactive contamination. The measured background radiation, including the cosmic contribution, ranged from 4 to 11 μR/h.